


Break

by toooldforfandom



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-23 00:52:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7460268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toooldforfandom/pseuds/toooldforfandom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a very close encounter with death, Pearl watches Steven sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Break

The house was quiet, the silence only broken by the creaks and little noises that the wood house usually had at night. Pearl sometimes imagined the noises were the temple fighting and struggling against the attached building, like a human body attacking a transplant even when it’s necessary for its continued survival.

The only other sound was Steven’s shallow breathing. In and out, in and out. Inside his body his lungs expanded and contracted, the oxygen was processed and distributed through his arteries thanks to the heart. Pearl had never really cared about the inner workings of the human body but she knew that much. Of the Crystal Gems only Rose had expressed more than a passing interest on humans and even her interest had been superficial, an admirer of their nature, the way they lived, endured and adapted but no more than that. At least until she had met Greg.

Her Rose was gone now though, the result of her love to Greg and humanity resting in the bed where Pearl was sitting. She slowly moved her hand to Rose’s, no, Steven’s gem but stopped just before touching it. She imagined she could still see the cracks that had been there just hours earlier, like invisible scars in the flawless gem.

It had been a surprise attack, Steven had just dissolved his shield when the monster they had already dismissed as defeated had launched a last attack, an arrow of light, directly towards his gem. It had seemed intact for an instant but it cracked a second later, Steven’s surprised eyes turning into lifeless ones, his body falling into Pearl’s arms who was too shocked to react other than to hug him.

Most of what happened after was a blur to Pearl but she remembered that Garnet had bubbled the monster after attacking it with her gauntlets, her face a tight mask of control. Amethyst threw herself over Pearl, grabbing Steven asking if he was okay over and over until Garnet touched her shoulder and told her to stop, shaking her head. Then she had taken Steven from Pearl’s arms and lifted him, walking towards the warp, the other two gems following her. Together, without talking about it, they warped directly to Rose’s fountain.

They had run more than walked to the fountain, all the while Pearl only able to look Steven’s face, his head moving with the beat of Garnet’s steps, his eyes open but devoid of any emotion. It was like there was nothing there, just an empty organic shell, it was _wrong_. Pearl suspected the look in his face would haunt her for the rest of her life. Even now she had to resist waking up Steven to confirm he was there, that he was alive and healthy.

She had seen many gems, friends and foes, get broken or damaged, it was the fate she had chosen when she decided to follow Rose Quartz, to become a rebel, a fighter, a Crystal Gem. But the first one she had seen was when she was still just a pearl among many. Made to order in a Homeworld boutique, far away from the kindergartens where all the other gems were made, she saw how the technicians received a pearl that had been rejected by her owner because of a subtle color difference from what had been ordered. She could still remember, after all those millennia, the misery and resignation in the gem’s face. They had crushed her almost immediately, not caring if the rest of the pearls could see or maybe it had been a warning to conform, she didn’t know. It was then she discovered she was a defect: she was the only pearl that had cried at the sight; she was the only one who _cared_.

She had cleaned her tears before anyone even looked at her and she would spend years hiding in plain sight, servile and passive, resigned to her fate waiting for someone to notice and send her to her death. Until she had met Rose. The pink gem had shared tales of other worlds of unimaginable beauty and unexplainable organic creatures. Pearl still remembered how animated Rose would become when talking about her beloved colony and how sad she would be after every meeting with the Diamond Authority, her pleas to spare the planet denied.

One day Rose told her she was going away, she had succeeded in annoying the Diamonds so much they had exiled her to the planet she insisted in talking about until the colony was complete.

“Please, let me go with you”, Pearl had begged. She had seen the signs in Rose’s eyes, in her hands when she talked, in her mouth when she smiled. She _cared_. Pearl didn’t noticed it then but later she would understand, she had already fallen in love with Rose.

The pink gem refused at first, mentioning Pearl’s owner, the Diamond Authority, but her eyes had betrayed her excitement. A day later Rose had left Homeworld with Pearl hidden in her ship. Pearl never found out what her owner’s reaction had been but she figured the war had been more important than a missing lowly pearl.

Together they founded the Crystal Gems. Rose the heart and brain with Pearl as her right hand. Garnet would join later, muscle and wisdom in one gem. Many others would join later, attracted by Rose’s conviction or by the beauty of the world around them. They lived and fought together and finally had succeeded in driving off Homeworld, but the enemy forces didn’t leave quietly.

The attack had been sudden, only Rose’s shield had saved them but Pearl could still see the gems around them screaming in agony, their bodies deforming under the pressure before exploding in malformed shards.

The monster that had attacked Steven was one of those gems, driven mad by the pain and the effects of the weapon, making them unable to form again unless it was as monsters. Even the fountain failed to heal them, no matter how much they tried over the years.

Thankfully the fountain had been able to heal Steven. His eyes closed the second his body touched the water, his gem glowing and slowly regenerating.

Now the house was empty. Sapphire and Ruby were outside somewhere, dealing with what had happened in their own way. Amethyst was probably in her room, breaking things to feel better. Someone would need to tell Greg later, thought Pearl. She would think later about how she had felt herself break when she saw the cracks in Steven’s gem and how long it would take to piece herself together again.

For now she would stay there sitting next to Steven, watching him sleep, waiting for him to wake up and tell her everything was fine. Everything else could wait.

**Author's Note:**

> This entire fic was inspired by an idea I had of Pearl saying/thinking that Steven's gem breaking sounded the same as her own heart breaking. HOWEVER, gems don't have hearts so... welp. I realized this embarrassingly late and I'm not sure I was able to get across what I wanted in the end.
> 
> English is not my native language so I'm sorry about any mistakes. I'm pretty sure I messed up some past tenses during the flashback inside the flashback but I'm not really sure.
> 
> I'd really appreciate any feedback you may have even if it is "You suck, do something else"!


End file.
